Tag: bloghopping

Longtime collaborators photographer Henry Hargreaves and food stylist Caitlin Levin joined forces in a fascinating illustration of different parts of the country … using the respective region’s signature foods.

Seaweed varieties from JapanTomato galore in ItalyLook at all dat cheeeeeeese in France!Noodles are the best. Love, ChinaGone bananas in AfricaBurst of spices in India… and it’s all corns in the United States.

Sharing their passion for all things food and travel, they’ve been using food as a medium to convey that love across their projects, including entire series of artworks based on eggs, gingerbread, as well as Oreo cookies.

Award-winning photographer Jeff Friesen started out inspired by his daughter and her Lego collection. Initially, his constructions were of multi-part series that was meant to satirize the provinces of homeland Canada. It grew in popularity, and he went on to expand the project into a 50 part series to characterize the U.S., thus the ’50 States of Lego’ namesake.

I had a good laugh looking through the gallery. There’s no other way to nail the individual states down other than the way Jeff did (I’d make California an exception). Most of his assemblies romp with pop culture references that you’d be able to tell instantly, but if you don’t, his dead-on dry captions would.

Can you recognize each of these states? (Tip: Pay attention to the details.)

A chance encounter provides inspiration for large scale sculpture in the Black Hills.People tend to shy away from probing questions in the land of enchantment.There’s no place like home, but if your home is frequently blown aloft it helps to wear a parachute indoors.Getting strong now, this cheesesteak’s long, wow!Every summer you seen them emerging bright yellow from their green jackets: the children of the corn.Continue reading The united states of Lego

By now I’m pretty sure netizens have seen this, but I’m going to share the awesomeness of recent Hongik University graduate and artist JeeYoung Lee‘s works once more.

While this is not a blog per se, I believe the wonders of her work are digital proof that one person, given the right tools and props, can inspire others. Her modest 3 x 6 m studio has undergone massive renovation for months at a time to emerge as beautiful, otherworldly landscapes that only began as figments of her imagination. They look like repressed emotions and old memories we’re all familiar of at some point in our lives, blown up into individual concrete universes so you can literally make sense of every trace of your psychological state.

Obviously there was a lot of patience and dedication involved to prepare the objects required for each shoot. What astounds me was the fact that none of these pieces are Photoshopped or retouched using any other photo-manipulation technique. I know right.

For the dreamy folks, I believe you’ll love the same incredible pieces as I do:

As I see it, Disney princesses fascinate others as much as they are to me (well duh, it’s Disney), with artists imagining them to life all real and androgynous. They’re full of differing personalities, yet at the same time part of the same clan. It’s no wonder they’re a great subject to explore aesthetically.

A while ago I stumbled upon ‘Disney University‘, a collection of hipster-esque depictions of the whole Disney pack by creative genius hyung86 on DeviantArt. I was really inspired by his remakes of the princesses, and I could imagine myself wearing these chic, contemporary pieces in real life.

Stylistically, hyung86’s princesses are by far the closest rework to the original Disney touch, and I could see there’s a lot of respect given to these timeless characters. Given that most of us grew up with them and their damsel-in-distress stories, it amazes me that now we’re able to grow so much and look back at the classics in such a different light. Instead of lamenting and conforming to how it all worked in the old days, we now cease to produce the alternative possibilities of how things could unfold if these leading ladies were living in our society today.

Many of us believe that they would’ve acted upon themselves without having to wait for the princes to come along. They’d speak their minds, make a statement, and create their own creeds. These are the same Disney princesses we first saw on their starring roles as a kid, but also individual heroines who can think for themselves.

Take a look at my favorite reinterpretations of these hip and modern lasses:

Just in case you haven’t seen this, here’s something to stop and smile about. For the most part that I’ve been bloghopping, art has repeatedly proven its value to its ability to recreate reality into an awesome fantasy, which is always inspiring to see. Just take a look at these.

I’ve only seen this recently, but outside of her freelance assignments, one creative mom has been gaining worldwide attention for her creative collaboration with her son, that is, without the son’s knowledge. Before the Western world have heard of this work, she’s already compiled it all into a book, Sleepy Baby, in Taiwan last year.

Artist Sioin Queenie Liao, who is very much inspired just by watching the sleeping three-month-old Wengenn Liao, first published this series of adorable photographs, Wengenn In Wonderland, on her Facebook account. To create each snapshot, Queenie simply set up the props, stuffed animals and other materials beforehand, then once Wengenn fell asleep, she put him at the center of her vision, which has pretty much taken shape into reality, and start taking pictures of the beautifully-composed fantasy.

The mother of three also takes adorable photographs of the other two waking children in fairy costumes, which is really sweet. I guess getting creative makes the work of being a mom a lot less heavy.

See how Queenie’s keen and loving eyes pictured her son as he dreams:

Like … HOW CUTE ARE THESE?!?!?!

I don’t know what is it about Asian babies, but they’re always born with irresistibly chubby cheeks. Exhibit #1: Wengenn himself. Exhibit #2: The picture 10 found and forwarded to me. It’s currently set as my BBM display picture so I can stare at it all day:

Exhibit #3: This is Garfield and me. Only I was fully awake and posing, obviously.

Have looked through everything on Wengenn in Wonderland? Which fairytale-esque photograph of him is your favorite? I found it extremely difficult to pick just one, but I’ll have to go with the French artist. He’s so poised.

OK, so we’ve seen the faces of these princesses if they were real a couple of months ago on Bloghopping. Now what you’re about to see is an intriguing way to reimagine the animated missis of Disney.

There’s never been a better time in history to celebrate being a woman like today: Women can wear men’s clothes and their own and look just as incredible. Japanese digital artist Haruki Godo, or better known as godohelp on DeviantART, made it happen by using the much-followed Disney heroines as his models on his gallery-cum-blog, Costume Swap.

“I’m very fond of love between a man and a woman – couples,” told the Disney fan to Yahoo! Shine. “And I also love girls, so I thought if they wear their boyfriends’ clothes, I would be very happy. They are my wishes.”

As of this day, Godo works only on the leading ladies from movies he’s already watched. Whether he will or will not be depicting Princesses Anna and Elsa of Frozen this Christmas is another question, nobody knows. His art has marked a historical point of no return, as girls are now encouraged to be just as they are – with or without gowns.

The following are my favorite artworks of Godo in his Costume Swap collection, both personally because I love these characters and of how the nonconforming costumes fit so beautifully on them. They just look comfortable in their pants:

Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991) in Beast’s clothes

Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (1959) in Phillip’s clothesJasmine from Aladdin (1992) in Aladdin’s clothesAriel from The Little Mermaid (1989) in Eric’s clothesJane from Tarzan (1999) in Tarzan’s clothesRapunzel from Tangled (2010) in Flynn’s clothes

Vanellope from Wreck-It-Ralph (2012) in Ralph’s clothes

Seen Pocahontas, Tiana, and Mulan on Costume Swap yet? Let me know which of Godo’s princesses is your favorite :)

For the past two years, epic Tumblr blog Snack To The Future has received worldwide attention for their clever interpretations of the flick-grub combo. Created by ad agency 360i‘s art directors, Ricky Anolik and Andrew Tobin, the movie posters just got real at first glance. Each looked like the original posters for a moment, until you notice the altered imageries to go along with the intended pun, which are based on a food theme. “We always kick ideas around for funny Tumblrs — we each have over 20 personally — and we both love a good pun,” Tobin said to Quenton Narcisse on Mashable last month. “But in advertising, puns are a no-no, so we kind of needed an outlet for these.”

I was gobsmacked as it dawns on me … I thought, hey, how come nobody has ever done this? After all, eating and watching movies are two of the most revisited activities of the modern society – thus the big empires each of these industries have created out of itself. Perhaps the blog was a success because its creators never intended for it to succeed – it was purely for fun :)

Once every month, I share some of the most amazing stuff I’ve piled up around the web, notably the blogs that made an impression on me, like these.

I grew up playing Pokémon. In college, I majored in an area where I create cutesy characters. Everyday while in college, I walk past one of America’s foxiest districts, peering across the ritzy storefront line-up gracing Frisco’s Union Square.

All these realities just got realized when I stumbled upon a popular Tumblr blog, Pokémon X Fashion. Since June 2011, Canadian-based Zara employee Francis Phommisai has gotten tremendous attention from the world of high fashion for his unique take on fashion. Photoshopping two distinct passions of his into artful and sometimes funny pastiches, the independent blogger has shown that those glossy high-end spreads can actually be taken with a light heart. In as little as two years, he’s already schlepping a portfolio of collaborations with renowned professionals in the industry to boot, including the people at KENZO and photographer Kwannam Chu, thanks to the blog.

What’s the big hype anyway? Here, have a look yourself at some of my favorite posts:

A fresh take on fashion, aren’t they? Now I can easily imagine how a smiling Jigglypuff would be holding on to Liu Wen’s left shoulder in this picture.

The possibilities of Pokémon X Fashion are, no doubt, endless. Fashion magazines continue to publish monthly with-it editorials, and with over 600 Pokémons as of right now, it’s easy to see why the blog continues to gain traction – Phommisai keeps us readers guessing how he would juxtapose the monsters to spruce up the imageries.

Having been featured on respected publications like Refinery29, Marie Claire, and Mademoizelle, the budding blog and its ceaselessly fresh take is only beginning to influence the industry. At this point, I’m ever excited to see how the characters end up at the most surprising places :)

Once every month, I share some of the most amazing stuff I’ve piled up around the web, notably the blogs that made an impression on me, like these.

Recently, a Tumblr blog, This Could Have Been Frozen, has been getting lots of media attention for purporting itself to shine a brighter spotlight on people of color. The whole buzz have led many to misunderstood the author for protesting the upcoming Disney animation flick as, um, how should I put it – just another one of their billionth white princess movie.

Slated for release on November 27, Frozen is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, The Snow Queen. The movie will star two sister princesses, the Kristen Bell-voiced Anna and Elsa the Snow Queen, which will make up Disney a total collection of thirteen princesses by the end of this year.

For me, it’s interesting how the blogosphere today has the power to respond to a multinational mass media company’s corporate decisions, when ten years ago, nobody had thought of putting their opinions out there. I think it’s also fun to see imaginative artists reinterpreting classic Disney princesses into their own ideal versions.

One artist, a Finnish graphic designer to be exact, has been under my bookmarked list for quite some time, though he kept his princesses true to the Disney original. What Jirka Väätäinen was really putting out there on his blog was his fantastic Photoshopping skills that he learned while attending the Arts University College at Bournemouth in UK. He was able to show how Cinderella, Pocahontas, Mulan, Aurora, and the Disney family of two- and three-dimensional, silver screen characters would’ve looked like if they’re all real people.

You would probably recognize some familiar faces that have inspired Jirka (like a little Kim Kardashian on Princess Jasmine, or a little Michelle Williams on Snow White). Here, have a look:

What do you guys think? Awesome, eh? I’m excited to see if he’s going to come up with the two sisters some time in the near future :)

Speaking of which, on a recent interview with Yahoo! Movies, one of the Frozen directors Jennifer Lee, who wrote the script of Wreck-It-Ralph last year, touched upon the essence of the movie and how its storyline’s developed into something completely different from the archetypal princesses (think damsels in distress) of Disney’s past:

There’s a lot of classic tradition that we don’t want to step on, that we really enjoy about Disney, but we also wanted to make some very strong female characters, which we’ve done, and who we think hopefully girls will really relate to, and not just sisters. They are different types and they have their own powers in a way, and even the one that doesn’t have super powers.

I think also that the movie, the story itself is big and complex. It’s not just a simple tale. It’s one that starts with great characters you meet and relate to but they end up on a journey that gets bigger and bigger with a lot of surprises. So, I think we’ve really pushed the scope of the film bigger than anything we’ve done before.

Well, I guess we’ll just have to see about that, don’t we?

♥

Muchaluva,
Stace.

Posts navigation

Hi, I’m Stace—

—that girl who loves pigs. Welcome to my blog, and thanks for stopping by. Stillwater is my personal wellspring on wellness, beauty, and leisure for the well-read lady. So let's have tea and chat about life, love, and pigs.